Neelkantheshwar Temple, [Mandu]

Photograph of a building used as a Hindu shrine at Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, taken by an unknown photographer in c.1902. This is a view of the arched entrance to the building, which was originally an Islamic monument. With nearby Dhar, Mandu was the centre of an important provincial style of Islamic architecture characterised by an elegant and powerful simplicity which is believed to have influenced later Mughal architecture at Agra and Delhi. Now a ruined hillfort, Mandu was an ancient stronghold which first came to prominence under the Paramara dynasty, rulers of the province of Malwa in central India with their seat at Dhar, at the end of the 10th century. Its golden age came as the state capital of the Sultans of Malwa between 1405 and 1531. They renamed the fort ‘Shadiabad’(City of Joy) and built palaces, mosques and tombs amid the gardens, lakes and woodland within its walls. Most of the remaining buildings date from this period and were originally decorated with glazed tiles and inlaid coloured stone.